The Springsteen concert download era has begun. Will you share?

Thursday

Jan 30, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2014 at 11:09 AM

The day has arrived: You can now download Bruce Springsteen’s first Cape Town concert, legally and in high quality, for a reasonable $9.99, or $14.99 if you want to splurge for FLAC files. (And if you hear a quacking duck every time you read the word FLAC, don’t feel bad, because so does everybody.) And the rest of the shows on this tour will follow quickly on its heels, meaning if you feel like dropping a sawbuck every day or two you can own the entire tour.

Of course, if you’re the type already prone to collecting Bruce Springsteen’s entire concert output, this changes EVERYTHING. Used to be you relied on diligent tapers in the audience and dedicated posters getting the files up around the Internet for your downloading pleasure — and since these recordings weren’t available for sale officially, you could do so without guilt, since you weren’t technically costing Springsteen Inc. any dough. No matter what Prince says.

But what happens now? Will audience tapers continue to do their thing, with the vast majority of shared recordings continuing to be of the homemade variety? Or will their soon be a vast network of people copying and sharing the official downloads, effectively bypassing millions in potential revenue for the Springsteen camp?

Personally I’ve never been a big bootleg guy, not so much out of guilt but because they tend to sound lousy and I don’t have time to parse out the good stuff. (Radio shows and certain soundboard recordings aside.) But if the first Cape Town show showed up in my Dropbox today from some well-meaning Bruce Tweep, it would be mighty tempting to grab it. That’s not a hint or anything, Bruce Tweeps.

So what’s your take? Will you continue to share and download audience tapes only, or have we entered a new free-for-all era of bootleg piracy? And if you will share, what’s your justification — that Bruce’s daughter doesn’t need another million-dollar horse? Hey, if it helps you sleep at night …

Take our poll below, and leave your rationale in the comments!

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Pete Chianca

The day has arrived: You can now download Bruce Springsteen’s first Cape Town concert, legally and in high quality, for a reasonable $9.99, or $14.99 if you want to splurge for FLAC files. (And if you hear a quacking duck every time you read the word FLAC, don’t feel bad, because so does everybody.) And the rest of the shows on this tour will follow quickly on its heels, meaning if you feel like dropping a sawbuck every day or two you can own the entire tour.

Of course, if you’re the type already prone to collecting Bruce Springsteen’s entire concert output, this changes EVERYTHING. Used to be you relied on diligent tapers in the audience and dedicated posters getting the files up around the Internet for your downloading pleasure — and since these recordings weren’t available for sale officially, you could do so without guilt, since you weren’t technically costing Springsteen Inc. any dough. No matter what Prince says.

But what happens now? Will audience tapers continue to do their thing, with the vast majority of shared recordings continuing to be of the homemade variety? Or will their soon be a vast network of people copying and sharing the official downloads, effectively bypassing millions in potential revenue for the Springsteen camp?

Personally I’ve never been a big bootleg guy, not so much out of guilt but because they tend to sound lousy and I don’t have time to parse out the good stuff. (Radio shows and certain soundboard recordings aside.) But if the first Cape Town show showed up in my Dropbox today from some well-meaning Bruce Tweep, it would be mighty tempting to grab it. That’s not a hint or anything, Bruce Tweeps.

So what’s your take? Will you continue to share and download audience tapes only, or have we entered a new free-for-all era of bootleg piracy? And if you will share, what’s your justification — that Bruce’s daughter doesn’t need another million-dollar horse? Hey, if it helps you sleep at night …